Thread: Arms lagging

Your arms won't, and cant, grow at the same rate as your shoulders back and legs. They're tiny muscles! The back is a huge collection of different muscles, the shoulders have three separate muscles plus the traps, the legs are the biggest muscles in the body with the glutes quads and hams.

The arms cant possibly show as much growth as all that. They're probably growing just fine. Extra arm work won't do anything for you, and may hold you back by overstressing tiny muscles and stopping them from growing.

The best way to add an inch to your arms is to add 20lbs bodyweight so do your arm work in the kitchen. Also squat more.

Originally Posted by Gazhole

Your arms won't, and cant, grow at the same rate as your shoulders back and legs. They're tiny muscles! The back is a huge collection of different muscles, the shoulders have three separate muscles plus the traps, the legs are the biggest muscles in the body with the glutes quads and hams.

The arms cant possibly show as much growth as all that. They're probably growing just fine. Extra arm work won't do anything for you, and may hold you back by overstressing tiny muscles and stopping them from growing.

The best way to add an inch to your arms is to add 20lbs bodyweight so do your arm work in the kitchen. Also squat more.

Thanks for the info! I love working legs...so that works for me!

lol If your arms grew like the rest of your body you would look stupid...

Like everybody said your arms are not going to grow as big as everything else. But you may try switching up your routine every once In a while maybe one week out of the month do bis and back, or do tris and chest. Also biceps tend to get stubborn due to the only exercise is curls, so you can change your grip, do them reverse, try some drop sets, or twenty ones. My bis tend to get used to the same ol same ol curl routine, so I use thise some time to shock them. I've also Been ending my bis with cable curls and the constant tension at the end of my routine always seems to help get them real good.
Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by FitnessFreek

lol If your arms grew like the rest of your body you would look stupid...

Now if your arms really are tiny, that can be improved probably depending on your training. You're hitting them at the right times, but what kind of exercises are you doing? If you're relying on kickbacks and curls.... well, I'll leave it at that.

I wouldn't say tiny! LOL

Typically after back, I'll hit bis with (close grip chinups, straight bar curls, hammer curls, cable curls)

After chest, I'll hit triceps with (skull crushers or french presses, overhead tricep extension, close grip bench, tricep pushdowns)

I mix up other as well.

Originally Posted by rangermike

My arms are not growing at the same rate as my shoulders, chest, back, and legs. I always work arms at the back end of a major muscle and have been thinking about trying maybe an arm & ab day.

Here is what I have been currently been doing for the last 8 weeks, occasionally, I will work shoulders and arms on the same day, but generally do chest / tri's - back - bi's.

Monday - Legs - abs - 20 minutes (Heavy Bag)

Tuesday - Chest - Tris

Wednesday - Back - Bi's - 20 minute (Run)

Thursday - off

Friday - Shoulders -abs

Saturday - 20 minutes (Heavy Bag) - 20 minutes (Battling ropes)

This is just a base week for me.

I am thinking that at the end of my bigger muscle groups that my arms are so fatigued that I can't lift heavy enough to stimulate growth.

What would some of you vets do to mix it up?

Thanks in advance!

Do you see what you are doing here? Training the arms 3 times a week and probably overtraining them.Cut arms work.

I tend to add more size to my arms when I stop working them and switch to heavy compound lifts.

Originally Posted by Gazhole

Your arms won't, and cant, grow at the same rate as your shoulders back and legs. They're tiny muscles! The back is a huge collection of different muscles, the shoulders have three separate muscles plus the traps, the legs are the biggest muscles in the body with the glutes quads and hams.

The arms cant possibly show as much growth as all that. They're probably growing just fine. Extra arm work won't do anything for you, and may hold you back by overstressing tiny muscles and stopping them from growing.

The best way to add an inch to your arms is to add 20lbs bodyweight so do your arm work in the kitchen. Also squat more.

This doesn't make any sense.

-Won't grow at the same rate?
Yes, they can grow at the same rate.

Your pretty much saying that ronnie, jay, etc had a huge back, shoulders, legs, etc. before having big arms? No, pretty sure their body grew at the same rate. OBviously not the same "size" but same rate, yes.

Also, you state the many muscles in the back and shoulders, implying that the arms wont grow at the same rate because they are "tiny". The upper arm has 5 muscles alone w/out the forearm.

So you're saying the amount of tiny muscles that comprise the larger muscles has to do with the growth rate? Then why don't forearms have as much muscle mass as your back?






Ok, now, if you are worried about your arm size, don't overthink and DON'T tell yourself
:your arm workouts arent good enough
:you arent having enough volume
:not training arms heavy enough

The REAL tricep mass comes from your heavy benching, where the real weight is being pounded. Make sure you are benching heavy and hard. And as far as the REAL bicep mass comes from, is the heavy rows.

Don't believe me? why dont you go check out some of the worlds top powerlifters. The mainly train only compound movements, and sometimes will throw in some arm work. And they all EASILY has 20"+ arms.

Just make sure you are throwing in a few exercises for your arms after your chest or back day since that seems like the way you like doing it. Me personally, I do have a seperate arm day...kinda. Delts AM, and arms PM..just depends how i feel. If im done with chest, and feel like hitting tris, ill do it. I just go with what i am feeling. Obviously im not going to do chest/bis and then back the next day and overtrain. just make sure you are smart about it.

Originally Posted by stfuandliftbtch

This doesn't make any sense.

-Won't grow at the same rate?
Yes, they can grow at the same rate.

Your pretty much saying that ronnie, jay, etc had a huge back, shoulders, legs, etc. before having big arms? No, pretty sure their body grew at the same rate. OBviously not the same "size" but same rate, yes.

Also, you state the many muscles in the back and shoulders, implying that the arms wont grow at the same rate because they are "tiny". The upper arm has 5 muscles alone w/out the forearm.

So you're saying the amount of tiny muscles that comprise the larger muscles has to do with the growth rate? Then why don't forearms have as much muscle mass as your back?

Calm the hell down BRO. Way to take my post 100% literally. Are you a christian fundamentalist?

Newbies ALWAYS think their arms are small. They see big changes in their overall body, but small changes in their arms. The fact of the matter is that the back IS huge and the arms ARE small.

Sure, they may grow at similar rates but the overall visible growth is much more for the bigger groups like the back and legs because there's more muscle there!

His arms are probably growing perfectly fine, but the typical response - which i was trying to stop - was for him to add more pointless arm work where there's no problem to begin with.

Chill out.